Younus Khan became the first Pakistani player to score 10,000 Test runs on Sunday, reaching the landmark shortly after tea on the third day of the first Test against West Indies.

The 39-year-old is just the 13th batsman in the history of the sport to break the 10,000-run barrier.

He took his place in the record books with a sweep shot for a boundary off slow bowler Royston Chase on the second ball after the interval at Sabina Park having started the day requiring just 23 runs to reach his target.

Younus, playing in his 116th Test, will retire after the three-match series in the Caribbean having made his debut in 2000.

He has made 34 Test centuries with a best score of 313 against Sri Lanka in 2009.

Like younis khan, rare crickters come again in the world.He is super star and living legend and hero for cricket lovers.Pakistan Cricket Board must be arrange a fare well for such a great crickter.

اسے پسند کریں:

THIS refers to the news report ‘Trade deficit surges to all-time high’ (April 12). The trade deficit has already crossed the $23bn mark during July-March and expected to exceed $30bn by June, which is forcing the government to seek fresh borrowings from other sources to meet its import requirements, as well as debt service obligations.

The reserves have declined from the peak of $24.5bn in early October 2016 to $21.5bn as of now, with falling exports, increasing imports and the resultant enlarged current account deficit expected at about $6bn. Further erosion in reserves in the subsequent months looks certain as the improvement is not foreseen in the performance of external trade.

The above scenario demonstrates that the country is into a serious debt trap. Debt trap is a situation in which a debt is difficult or impossible to repay, the borrower is sucked into obtaining fresh debt to pay old debt and a vicious cycle is created from which there is no exit.

Pakistan’s external debt stands at $75bn while its exports are $20bn. This means its external debt is almost four times that of exports. Bangladesh’s external debt is just 1.2 times its exports.

North korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces on the occasion of the new year, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 10, 2016.

South Korea said on Sunday North Korea’s latest missile launch threatened the entire world, warning of a punitive action if it leads to further provocations such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch.

"North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately” on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in South Korea for talks on the North’s increasingly defiant arms program.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces on the occasion of the new year, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 10, 2016.

South Korea said on Sunday North Korea’s latest missile launch threatened the entire world, warning of a punitive action if it leads to further provocations such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch.

"North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A North Korean missile "blew up almost immediately” on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in South Korea for talks on the North’s increasingly defiant arms program.

In the latest example of American saber-rattling, an old nuclear weapon is getting a makeover … one that’s costing taxpayers an estimated $11 billion.

The United States National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) announced the successful completion of the first “qualification flight test” for the B61-12 nuclear “gravity bomb” this week.

“The non-nuclear test assembly was dropped from an F-16 based at Nellis Air Force Base,” a release from the agency noted. “The test evaluated both the weapon’s non-nuclear functions as well as the aircraft’s capability to deliver the weapon.”

Did it work? Apparently …

“This demonstration of effective end-to-end system performance in a realistic ballistic flight environment marks another on-time achievement for the B61-12 Life Extension Program,” said brigadier general Michael Lutton. “The successful test provides critical qualification data to validate that the baseline design meets military requirements. It reflects the nation’s continued commitment to our national security and that of our allies and partners.”

The B61 is a staple of the American nuclear arsenal – with more than 3,100 such weapons produced over the last fifty years. An estimated 1,300 remain in service. The B61-12 life extension program intends to consolidate and replace four different variants of this weapon, with its “first production unit” slated for delivery in March of 2020.

The weapon is twelve-feet long, weighs between 700-800 pounds, is accurate to thirty meters and has a blast yield of fifty kilotons.

The B61-12 is “critical to sustaining the nation’s strategic and non-strategic air-delivered nuclear deterrent capability,” according to the NNSA – although the life extension program has been repeatedly targeted for budget cuts in recent years

Russia, Syria and Iran strongly warned the United States Friday against launching new strikes on Syria and called for an international investigation of the chemical weapons attack there that killed nearly 90 people.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who hosted his Iranian and Syrian counterparts in Moscow, denounced the U.S. missile strikes on Syria as a “flagrant violation” of international law. Additional such actions would entail “grave consequences not only for regional but global security,” Lavrov said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the meeting sent a “strong message” to Washington. Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif emphasized that the participants agreed that unilateral actions by the U.S. were unacceptable.

The U.S. accuses the Syrian government of deliberately launching the deadly chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4. Russia has alleged that the victims were killed by toxic agents from a rebel chemical arsenal hit by Syrian war planes.

Moscow has warned against putting the blame on Damascus until an independent inquiry is conducted and vetoed a proposed U.N. resolution on the attack, saying it failed to mention the need to inspect the affected area.

Lavrov on Friday expressed skepticism about a preliminary investigation conducted by the U.N.’s chemical weapons watchdog. He alleged that its experts failed to visit the site and said it was unclear to Russia where evidence was taken and how it was

In Russia’s view, the probe conducted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons should be widened to include experts from many nations, he said.

“If our U.S. colleagues and some European nations believe that their version is right, they have no reason to fear the creation of such an independent group,” Lavrov added. “The investigation into this high-profile incident must be transparent and leave no doubt that someone is trying to hide something.”

Lavrov said the U.S. strike on the Syrian base has undermined peace efforts in Syria and reflected Washington’s focus on ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

The three ministers also discussed the beefing up of U.S. forces on Jordan’s border with Syria, Moallem said. He added that Russia, Iran and Syria have “common procedures against any aggression,” but wouldn’t offer specifics.

Lavrov said Moscow has asked Washington about the purpose of the buildup and received assurances that the U.S. troops were deployed there to cut supply lines between the Islamic State group factions in Syria and Iraq.

Russia has staunchly backed Assad’s government throughout Syria’s six-year civil war. It has conducted an air campaign in Syria since September 2015, saving Assad’s government from imminent collapse and helping to reverse the Syrian military’s fortunes.

“Read this interesting one-liner by Manto,” said my boss from one of my former workplaces as he nudged his smartphone in my direction.

Knowing who Saadat Hasan Manto was, and well-acquainted with the lascivious nature of my boss, I refused to read what he wanted me to.

But he insisted, “Why? Just read it.”

I was unyielding, “Sir, I don’t want to read it.”

As soon as I gave a firm ‘No’, he uttered, in a desperate hurry, the words that he was meaning for me to read all this time: “Beti koi paida karna nahi chahta lekin bistar par saray mard aurat chahtay hain.” (Nobody wants to give birth to a daughter but all men want women in their beds).

Utterly disgusted and astounded at his shameless brazenness, I couldn’t find appropriate words to retort with (something I will always regret all my life), and so I only managed to give him a look of disapproval, seeing which he left the office in a hurry, saying that he is getting late for his zuhr prayers.

This was the second time he had crossed a line in our conversations. The first time, I had given him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that he may have spoken those words on the spur of the moment – but on this occasion, I was sure of his intentions.

Exchanges like these between male and female colleagues are ubiquitous in workplaces. Sometimes, this talk takes place with the consent of females; however, more often than not, male supervisors and their counterparts just force their indecent remarks and opinions upon females – an act that falls into the category of verbal sexual harassment.

Men like him like to harass women as a cheap thrill, oblivious to the fact that women who leave their homes to earn a living or make a career belong to households not different than their own.

Had I castigated him, and recorded a complaint against him in the company’s employee helpline, apropos of his out-of-bounds talks, he would have gotten a taste of his own medicine.

If I had enough courage to do this at that time, odds are ten to one that next time he would have mulled his words at least two to three times over before saying something like this to another female colleague. However, I did not utter a word, let alone file a complaint, like most women in my position.

For starters, many women believe that a harasser’s actions cannot be changed just by a little reprimand. At other times, we choose to remain silent in order to preserve the work environment.

We are rarely ever entirely independent in our jobs – we rely on teamwork, take assistance from each other to make up for our lack of knowledge and experiences in certain areas.

Our promotions and appraisals depend upon how our supervisors evaluate us, and sometimes we are simply not in a position to fight back.

On top of that, we have all heard the arguments since childhood where elders say, “Men are men, they will do what they want, and you can’t fight them. It is you who has to be careful, otherwise you will be blamed”.

Because of concerns like these, in one fell swoop, the kinds of thoughts that cross a victim’s mind whenever she encounters an act of harassment are something as under:

“Did I give the other person some wrong signals?”
“Was I not behaving professionally?”
“Was I not dressed rightly?”

This brings me to why I feel guilt-stricken, and irate with myself for not giving him a shut-up call he rightfully deserved. We start questioning ourselves because that is what we’ve been taught all our lives: the victim is the one responsible for the harassment.

It took me a good amount of time to realise that I was not at fault when my boss unleashed the dirt of his mind on me. I had done nothing to instigate him to talk to me like he did.

Therefore, it is important that as employees (and as women), we should know our rights, i.e. the ability to call out behaviour when it goes off limits, and access to grievance-recording systems and mechanisms in our surroundings that we can utilise in case we are confronted with workplace harassment.

We should always be vigilant of others’ conduct and not let anyone dare take advantage of this idea that since we are women, we are somehow deserving of such behaviour. And if we decide to wage war against the ones exploiting us, we should stand firm and not let them bring us down.

Thank You Dawn.com

Zebaish Cheema is a 24-year-old business graduate from NUST living in Rawalpindi.